Seems like lately all my knitting time has been taken up by my family — or more specifically, my parents.
It started simply enough. At Rhinebeck this past fall I picked up a magnificent skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight, in Loch Ness. My mom is of Scottish descent, so as soon as I saw the colorway name I figured that one Christmas present was done.
Yes, I cheated. I didn’t even bother wrapping it. I just threw it in her stocking, which actually turned out to be hilarious, because when she picked up her stocking on Christmas morning, she turned and held it out to me. “I think this one is yours.” Everyone else already had their stockings, myself included, and I pointed that out to her. She sat down with it, looking confused. “But there’s yarn in it.”
After I stopped laughing, I made her read the label, and she somehow managed to see everything else on the label before she finally came to the color — and then it all came together. I told her it was her choice what she wanted me to make her, and that just opened the floodgates. (In hindsight, perhaps this was a mistake…) A scarf? Or a small shawl? Or a hat, or gloves or mittens or socks or a scarf or… It took the better part of a month before she settled on gloves.
Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern, from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight in Loch Ness
Needles: my trusty US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: These turned out adorable, if I may say so myself. Mom’s hands are pretty much exactly the size of mine (that is to say, very tiny) so these were a nice fast easy knit, and I could use myself to judge for size, which helps tremendously in speeding things along. As always, Ann Budd has made my life a million times easier by having numbers right there for me so I didn’t have to stop and constantly check to make sure I hadn’t suddenly started knitting something elephantine. Her pattern book is probably the most-consulted book in my knitting library.
I’m also very happy with the way the colors worked up; the little bits of pooling (literally, in watery blues) have a nice shape and seem to float along the fabric. I have quite a bit of leftover yarn so we’ll see what else we can eke out with what’s left.
It doesn’t end there, though, since then Mom decided she wanted a hooded scarf, because her hair doesn’t tolerate hats well, but her ears still get cold, etc. etc. Since she asked so nicely, how could I say no?
Pattern: Mimi Hooded Scarf from verypink.com (pattern found thru Ravelry)
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather, with edging in Lion Brand Polarspun, understandably discontinued
Needles: US7/4.5 mm circular (used my KP Harmony interchangables) and an H (5.0) crochet hook for the edging
Notes: Fun pattern that wasn’t as tedious as I’d feared to knit. The scarf did stretch on for just about forever but the basketweave pattern kept things interesting (although it took me a few repeats before my clever self figured out which side was actually the RS). If I made this again, I would pick up stitches for the hood and knit it directly up from the scarf rather than doing it as a separate piece and seaming it. Worked out fine, looks great — I just abhor seaming.
I used Polarspun to single-crochet the fluffy edging around the entire thing. The original calls for some Italian yarn I’ve never heard of, and the Polarspun’s been living in my stash ever since I picked it up at a Smiley’s hotel sale a couple of years ago, and there was no sense in buying something new when I had a perfectly good yarn in the stash. Well. Let me tell you how amazed I am that anybody would ever use this yarn for a full garmet. It catches on itself and sticks and pulls and is generally just a pain in the ass. That’s not to say it doesn’t look and feel amazing, because it does. But I wouldn’t want to have to use this for anything other than an accent. It’s just too frustrating to work with.
I’m happy with the overall effect, and it looks great on Mom — so warm and cozy, in fact, that I’m contemplating making one for myself. I’ll probably even use the Polarspun — after all, I still have two and a half skeins of the stuff in my stash!
I figured that would be that and I could get around to ripping out my February Lady sweater, which I have finally admitted, after a month of knitting, is just…too…big. (Don’t ask. I am currently conducting a cold war with my gauge.) But no! Dad decided he was being left out, and insisted on some Fair Isle mittens for himself. I handed over my Selbuvotter book and he found a pattern he liked, informed me precisely which shades of grey and red he wanted, and sent me on my way.
Well, I’ve shown him. I cast on for a hat for myself first! So there, family.